We are a group seeking to promote Fairtrade within the town. After just over a year of campaigning we achieved Fairtrade Town Status in November 2010 renewing this earlier this in February 2012. Our work continues raising awareness of the plight of many millions of farmers in the developing world who rely on selling crops like coffee, tea , chocolate, bananas and cotton which we need to import.

We are a small steering group with support from other interested members of the community. We organise events and try to make a contribution to town activities e.g. serving Fairtrade hot chocolate at the Edwardian evening just before Christmas, organising a Fairtrade football raffle at a Sports Aid event and exhibiting an information stand at the Okehampton Show. We have also aimed to organise an event for each Fairtrade fortnight, these have included a Mad Hatter’s Tea party, a Fairtrade Fashion Show and a speaker on Mountain Fruits, Fairtrade apricot producers from Afghanastan.

We work closely with our primary school which has itself gained Fairtrade status within the last year and are also encouraging Okehampton College in their bid for status. We would be pleased to hear from anyone interested in becoming part of our campaign. Contact the group secretary Cynthia Higbee athigbee@waitrose.com

Every Fairtrade fortnight, banners are displayed in Fore Street (see photo)The banners were funded by the Co-operative group, commissioned by Okehampton Fairtrade group.